Michigan school chief tightening charter oversight

July 8, 2014 | AP Michigan's top education official says he will suspend the power of some institutions to authorize the opening of charter schools if the groups don't meet new standards.

State schools Superintendent Mike Flanagan's office says the Michigan Department of Education will establish rigorous measures of the "the transparency, academic, and financial practices of the charter schools of each authorizer."

Flanagan says he's notifying authorizers that he will end their ability to OK future schools if they don't meet those measures. Leading authorizers include Central Michigan, Grand Valley State and Saginaw Valley State universities.

Monday's announcement says a recent series of news articles prompted Flanagan to think differently about the authorizers. The Detroit Free Press has run stories questioning Michigan's oversight of the publicly funded but independently run schools.